


The Vonnegut Children

by Crimson_Square



Category: Worm - Wildbow
Genre: Family Feels, Older Taylor Hebert, Vonnegut Siblings are sort-of tagged, Vonnegut Siblings obviously have nothing whatsoever to do with the S9, Vonnegut siblings, it's kind of obvious, there's a blatant lie here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-22 02:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11370546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crimson_Square/pseuds/Crimson_Square
Summary: Jacob, James and Riley Vonnegut, adopted siblings, are given into the custody of Taylor Hebert after the death of their guardian, Mr. King.





	1. Introductions: 1.1 - Jacob

**Author's Note:**

> Alright; let's start with first things first:  
> Update schedule. This'll update fairly irregularly until I've finished posting Learning to be Human, when I'll start thinking more about it. ... this isn't very informative, is it? 
> 
> I've already posted the first chapter of this in Bits and Ideas That Might Never Go Anywhere, in this case... yeah, it'll probably go somewhere. I do not promise to finish this story, but unless something totally unforeseen happens, you'll get four other chapters at least.

Jacob tried not to focus on anything but keeping calm, but it was hard - very, very hard. His eyes were on the window, a desolate seeming city under a cloudy sky showing from the room they were in - he was kind of glad they were on a higher floor, at least there was something to look at outside, so he didn't have to focus on the room, the bare office that it was.  
  
Mrs Rosenkrantz usual office was apparently being renovated right now, he had the feeling that place would be full of knick-knacks and small memories, and a great deal better for distracting onself in.  
  
They were going to have to start new, again. The last time he'd done so had been barely half a year ago, he and his two siblings being put under Mr. King's guardianship, all four of their memories lost, and nothing to prove their previous existence but some documents.  
  
And now Mr. King was dead, and he wasn't sure whether he was relieved or scared - probably both.  
  
Slowly, Mrs Rosenkrantz' voice drifted into focus. "-ob? Jacob? Are you all right?"  
  
"Yes, Mrs Rosenkrantz", he answered their social worker, on autopilot.  
  
James, listening attentively as ever, or at least pretending to, elbowed him, with just enough force to jolt him out of his stupor. The other boy's blond hair was combed as impeccably as ever, his shoes were squeaky clean, and so was everything else about him, Jacob had never understood his brother's tics, but them still being present meant everything was alright.  
  
Right. There were more important things to do than feel anxious, even if all he could do right now was hope that their next guardian was a decent sort.  
  
Like making sure Riley and James were alright, and to see whether they could glean any useful information out of their social worker before actually meeting their new guardian.  
  
Had he actually caught their name?  
  
"Mrs Rosenkrantz?", he asked.  
  
"Yes, Jack?"  
  
"Jacob. Not Jack. Jacob", he corrected her. He really didn't like being called 'Jack', Mr King had done so all the time.  
  
"Jacob, I mean - sorry, it's just…" Mrs Rosenkrantz fell silent, looking at her files.  
  
"Mr King put down I preferred being called Jack?", Jacob asked.  
  
She blushed, and Jacob already knew what she was thinking - that the nickname was too raw, so soon after his guardian's death. In truth, he was actually relieved he wasn't their guardian any more, no matter how that had happened, how he'd contracted an exotic illness that didn't usually occur in the US. He didn't care, and didn't want to know.  
  
"Ah, Jacob, then. What did you want to ask?"  
  
"Do you know anything about our new guardian?"  
  
Mrs Rosenkrantz smiled. "I do, actually. Taylor Hebert - well, she's an old friend. We went to high school together."  
  
"Oh?", Jacob asked.  
  
Mrs Rosenkrantz shrugged. "It wasn't the best of times, but we - ah, found each other during junior year. Made some other friends, too. She's one of the best people I know."  
  
So Mrs Rosenkrantz was biased as could be, useful to know before evaluating any information. On the other hand, from what he'd seen from Mrs Rosenkrantz, there was a good chance any of her friends might actually be decent, it would be a nice change.  
  
"Taylor is, well - I guess a good example would be the time she got into a fight with the school's track star after she broke our not-yet friend Greg's leg; didn't ever defend herself before that, but somebody else got into trouble and she didn't walk away. I, well, I patched the two of them up, afterwards, all three of us got suspended for two weeks for starting fights. Winslow was a bit biased towards the better kids."  
  
There was a genuine bitterness in those words, one that didn't quite surprise Jack. But it was… nice to know their new guardian seemed to defend others, even if she'd learned the lesson that wasn't something you always should or could do, this might extend to them.  
  
He was calming down by the second, even with the ticking of the clock signalling the time of arrival for their new guardian coming closer and closer.  
  
"Any more recent stories?", he asked.  
  
"Well, she and my husband work together, so I have some stories there, you wouldn't believe what they observed, sometimes… I think just last week, somebody tried to 'initiate' a rookie through some made up traditions, and Taylor laid into him. Didn't ever make a peep again. She's good at that."  
  
Last week, sounded much better - didn't really tell anything absolute about how she might act at home, people acted differently in different places, but a strong sense of not liking people kicking the dog sounded great. If that translated to their home life, it would be awesome.  
  
"I just wanted to ask", Mrs Rosenkrantz interrupted his thoughts, "whether the three of you - well, do you prefer being called James Harris, Jacob Bowie, and Riley Bones, or James, Jacob and Riley Vonnegut?"  
  
He looked at his siblings, both miming small shrugs. "I don't think any of us really care all that much. Vonnegut would probably be easier. Mark us as siblings." That was his opinion on the topic, at least.  
  
"Alright. I'll make sure your records continue reflecting that." Mrs Rosenkrantz gave him a grin, and then - the door flinched open, and a tall woman stepped through.  
  
Long dark hair, bound into a ponytail, and slim, those were the first things Jacob noticed about their new guardian. Not exactly part of the modern beauty-standard, but very, very fit, moving smoothly, with a trained step, as if she knew exactly what she was doing, where she was moving. "Hey Charlotte", she gave the woman a small smile, before turning to them, where the smile disappeared.  
  
"Those are the kids?"  
  
Frowning, Charlotte answered: "Yep. All yours after you've signed these forms."  
  
Ms Hebert took a seat.  
  
Jacob's heart plummeted.


	2. Introduction: 1.2 - Riley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And we see the first chapter from Riley's perspective.  
> Also, second chapter overall :D
> 
> The children follow Ms Hebert home, hold a war council, and Riley bounces.

Riley could hardly contain her excitement. A new guardian! And this one would be nicer than Mr King!  
  
… she hoped. Well, there were always options if she wasn't.  
  
The best sign, of course, was that before ever signing the forms, she looked around at them. "I am Ms Hebert, your new guardian. And you're Jack, Jim and Riley Vonnegut, correct?"  
  
Jacob shook his head. "It's Jacob and James, ma'am."  
  
"Jacob and James, alright." She gave them a short, small smile.  
  
"Are you alright with this?" She made a waving gesture, seemingly referring to all the room.  
  
Jacob looked at them, and she nodded, James blonde head bobbing up and down beside her. "We are."  
  
"Good. That's… good. Alright, I'll sign, then."  
  
Mrs Rosenkrantz handed her the forms, and slowly, their soon-to-be guardian worked her way through them, reading them one by one, all very, very carefully, before signing.  
  
Riley approved. Carefulness was a good habit in a guardian. Mr King hadn't been very careful.  
  
Huh, that might make things difficult, later on… nevermind.  
  
When the forms were signed, Ms Hebert looked at them, giving them that short smile again, one that was more severe than nervous.  
  
"I'm done. There's already rooms prepared for you at home, and Mrs Rosenkrantz will check up on you regularly. I assume you each have some of your things with you?"  
  
"All of them, ma'am", Jacob answered.  
  
Ms Hebert frowned. "I see."  
  
She stared at the three suitcases beside them, each maybe enough to manage for a few days. "Your prior guardian didn't have a lot of money?"  
  
Riley spoke up for the first time: "No, Mr King had lots of it! And a really big house." She grinned at Ms Hebert, hoping being truthful would help. Her grin faded when Jacob glared at her, and Ms Hebert frowned.  
  
"Didn't the documents mention you used to share a room?", she asked.  
  
"They are correct", James inserted himself into the discussion.  
  
"I see." Ms Hebert was still frowning, seemingly glaring at nothing.  
  
Riley didn't like it very much.  
  
Then, she exhaled deeply, before rising from her chair. "Alright, I've prepared separate rooms - but if you do want to share, just say so, I won't mind."  
  
They exchanged a look. "We'll be happy not to share, ma'am", Jacob answered for them, and Ms Hebert's frown deepened.  
  
"Well, we should go down to the car then, all of your suitcases should fit in the trunk. If anyone's suitcase too heavy for them, I can carry it. See you around, Charlotte."  
  
She gave the other woman a hug, then waited in the door for them, before leading them to the elevator - all three marching in a straight line, first Jacob, then her, then James, like ducklings following their mother.  
  
But this wasn't their mother, not yet, maybe never.  
  
Riley would've given anything for it to be.  
  
Forcing the feeling down, she followed Ms Hebert.  
  
  
  
The car ride was neither particularly long nor particularly short, just long enough so it didn't seem like they might as well have walked and not so long anybody started on "Are we there yet?", something Riley would've liked to have done - it was always great fun, and had greatly bothered Mr King.  
  
It would've been a good way to test how Ms Hebert reacted to being bothered, something Riley firmly believed was important to know from any grown-up.  
  
"We're here", Ms Hebert announced, the group arriving at a house that looked as if it had gotten renovated rather recently. It was three stories high, the uppermost one having rather obviously been added recently from what Riley could see, and in good condition, even if the neighborhood wasn't, built solidly and sturdidly, nothing at all like a child's dream of an ancient haunted house.  
  
Riley immediately fell in love with it.  
  
Ms Hebert pulled up into the driveway, bringing the car to a stop in a rather new garage, before closing it and leading them into the house through a side door. There was a corridor leading into the house, a shoe rack, several hooks to hang up jackets and coats, but only, Riley noticed, shoes of one size, jackets of one size.  
  
Ms Hebert slipped out of her shoes. "Outdoor shoes go here, don't wear them in the house."  
  
Her tone brooked no argument, and one after the other, Riley and her siblings slipped out of their shoes, putting them onto the shoe rack, herself somewhat hazardly, Jacob with a bare minimum of neatness, and James so precisely she wondered how he managed without using a grid and ruler.  
  
Then, they were led upstairs, to the third floor, where four doors went away from the small space around the ending of the stair case  
  
"These are your rooms - there's one for each of you, you can choose yourselves who gets which one, but they're all around the same size, anyways. Bathrooms that door", she pointed at one of them. "I'll take you out so we can buy decorations, later. I'll call you for lunch." With those words, she turned around and walked back down the stairs.  
  
Jacob was the one who opened all the doors, revealing three rather… bland rooms, all with a white curtains, a single bed, a chair, a pin-up wall, a bedside and a working table, and absolutely nothing else. No shelves, no wardrobe, no colour whatsoever.  
  
A blank slate.  
  
It was absolutely beautiful. She could - she could ask to have the bed frame painted pink, or get pink sheets, or get posters, or…  
  
She could treat animals, here, like a real vet! Make them better, too, improve just a little… if she got some clean plastic sheets, the blood would hardly be able to stain the floor!  
  
This was _wonderful_.  
  
Quickly, they divided the rooms between them, by unspoken agreement James getting the one to the East, her the one to the South, and Jacob the one to the West; the main difference between the rooms seemed to be when sunlight would reach them, and like this, the point sunlight reached each room now corresponded roughly to the occupant's favoured time of getting up.  
  
Riley's first act was climbing onto the bed, and standing up. She bent her knees, and jumped into the air.  
  
The bed _bounced_ , and Riley laughed in joy. She'd never jumped on a bed before.  
  
Of course, that was when the door opened, James sticking his head in. "War council, Jacob's room."  
  
War council? But… she thought the need for war councils had ended after Mr King died…  
  
Climbing off the bed, she sneaked into Jacob's room, as silently as possible, like a ninja, while her brothers stared at her oddly.  
  
Then, they all climbed onto the bed, into a big huddle.  
  
"Alright. Ms Hebert", Jacob started. "What do we know so far?"  
  
"She appears to be nicer than Mr King so far. We have no evidence to the contrary, yet", James answered, nodding to himself.  
  
"Separate rooms, we'll get to decorate them, too, and she's been kind enough so far", Riley confirmed, huddling closer to James, who put an arm around her.  
  
"Doesn't like something she's hearing about us", Jacob countered, and James and Riley stilled. Jacob was usually right about people. "She frowned when she first saw us. Whole time we talked about Mr King, too, and her smiles don't reach her eyes when she's looking at us. They did with Mrs Rosenkrantz."  
  
That… that could be bad. "We've just got to prove we're good children, then", Riley said, and they all heard the echo of Mr King in her words. He'd never believed them they were good, until they had finally stopped believing he was. Or that his definition of 'good' had any merit. But a tiny part of her still wanted to be a good girl, and she knew her brothers felt similarly.  
  
"How… how do we do that?", Jacob asked, almost brokenly.  
  
For a long while, there was only silence, then a voice shouted from downstairs: "James, Jacob, Riley - Lunch is done!"  
  
Sharing one last look, they marched downstairs.  
  
  
  
Lunch was… very good, Riley decided, digging into home-made spaghetti bolognese, uncaring of the fact she probably had sauce all over her chin by now. Spaghetti sauce was meant for that! Ms Hebert was a decent cook, at least, and had obviously tried with the meal, something that warmed Riley's heart. She desperately, desperately wanted Ms Hebert to like her.  
  
When they'd all finished their meals, they just sat there, nobody seeming to know what to do.  
  
"Alright", Ms Hebert started. "About school…", she cleared her throat. "Well, I think Charlotte - uh, Mrs Rosenkrantz told you that both she and I went to Winslow High, which would be the closest High School. You're… not going to go there."  
  
They exchanged a look. Didn't their guardian want to follow them into her footsteps?  
  
"It's only gotten worse in the years since we went there, and I could have hardly believed that back then. Instead, James and Jacob - you'll be going to Arcadia High School, Riley, you'll be going to Edison Middle School, it's probably the one closest to Arcadia and funnels most of it's students there. The best public schools in the city, actually. I can't quite afford a private school, but I could manage at least that. Charlotte - uh, that is Mrs or Mr Rosenkrantz will take you there when I can't, they're old friends; my job is a bit erratic, unfortunately. Any questions?"  
  
The three of them shared a look "We'll be getting school supplies there?", Jacob asked.  
  
"Right… I'll get you some, we're lucky it's a Friday today. We'll go shopping this weekend, too, if you want to."  
  
"Sounds awesome!", Riley said, and beaming, and her brothers gave her small smiles.  
  
Almost imperceptibly, Ms Hebert smiled back.


	3. Introduction: 1.3 - James

  
The weekend was spent in an entirely satisfactory manner, in James' opinion, each of the three of them decorating their own rooms to each one's own taste.  
  
In Riley's case, that meant a hideous fury of pink, glitter, unicorns, and plastic sheets to spread out on the floor so she wouldn't make any mess when painting or anything, as well as some more pink. And glitter.  
  
It was enough to give a teenage boy the shivers. Jacob's room, in contrast, contained a lot more black and red, some random band posters, and he'd even talked their guardian into getting both himself and James a small blade "just for self-defense purposes, of course".  
  
Although Ms Hebert had seemed almost approving of that.  
  
His own room was tastefully decorated, containing a selection of small knick-knacks, a sturdy wardrobe, a few bookshelves, his own laptop, and a few mathematical posters.  
  
While he could recite the formulae on them in his sleep, they were oddly comforting - just like this room's not too deviating right angles were.  
  
He'd already placed everything so it was either equidistant from the two objects to each side, or exactly in a corner. It was nice. Calming.  
  
And he'd go to school today! No more homeschooling! Actual math classes!  
  
He so looked forward to them.  
  
  
  
High School Math Class was, in a word, boring.  
  
They didn't even have calculus yet!  
  
No matter what anybody else said, it wasn't his fault he'd fallen asleep. Sophomore math was just so… trivial.  
  
"Mr Vonnegut, if you'd come to the blackboard, please", he heard a voice beside him, and nearly jumped out of his seat, sitting up so fast the brown-haired boy he'd been sharing a bench with flinched.  
  
Drearily, half-asleep, still blinking his eyes open he went to the blackboard, and glanced at what it said there before he started to write wordlessly.  
  
"Ah, sit down, Mr Vonnegut."  
  
He did, his last sight before falling asleep again his bench neighbour glaring at him.  
  
Luckily, his other lessons were more interesting.  
  
  
  
Lunch didn't come early enough - finally, he was capable of being vis-a-vis at least one of his siblings again.  
  
Jacob, like always, already knew people. He currently was sitting with a mousey brunette, whom he'd dragged to a table with several other kids, amongst them the brown-haired boy James recognised as being the one he'd shared a bench with during math.  
  
"Hey James! Over here!" His brother waved at him, and this was why he didn't mind Jacob's habits: Because there would always, always be a space for him.  
  
With a small smile, James took the seat his brother had kept free for him, right beside him and another boy, he hadn't yet met, a lanky red-head with rather pleasing proportions.  
  
"These are Amy", his brother gestured at the only girl at their small table, "Chris", the brown-haired boy from maths, "and Dennis", the red-head.  
  
"And this is my brother, James." Jacob gestured to him, and James did a low half-bow, just barely bending his back, his arm in front of his torso.  
  
Jacob unabashadly grinned at him. He held his head up when he said: "Yeah, he's a bit of a weirdo."  
  
James raised an eyebrow, his hands at either side of his lunch, gripping the fork and spoon. Correctly, of course.  
  
Jacob just grinned back, while the remainder of the table laughed, and just like that, any ice there might have been was broken.  
  
"Weren't you the one who fell asleep in math class?", Chris asked, and James felt himself blush.  
  
"It was full of ennui", he answered, and was met with blank stares. "I mean, boring. Really, really boring. Didn't learn anything new."  
  
The stare Chris levelled at him could have melted stone.  
  
"We were homeschooled before this", Jacob took over smoothly, "and James spent nearly all of his time with his nose in books. Mostly math, usually pretty old. Didn't take any real courses, but I think he's around college level in math and not much good in languages."  
  
"Hey!", James near-shouted, then chuckled. "Alright. But for all your ability to read what? German, Spanish, French, Latin and what else?"  
  
"Japanese kanji and a bit of Chinese, but I'm really bad at that last one, still", Jacob answered automatically.  
  
"For all of that I bet you're going to near fail your Math classes, so there." James grinned at him, and Jacob grinned back.  
  
Chris had stopped glaring at some point, just glancing first at one, then at the other.  
  
"Not if you help me, brother." Jacob was leaning slightly forwards on the table, and James could feel a fierce joy pulsing around him.  
  
"Only if you help me with languages", he answered.  
  
"Deal", Jacob said, without hesitating.  
  
"If everyone else needs help, they will of course get it for free, although I do not believe I am the most comprehensible of teachers."  
  
The table began to chuckle at their byplay.  
  
"You wound me." Jacob clutched at his chest, throwing back his head.  
  
First Amy, then Dennis, and finally Chris, all erupted into full-blown laughter, and when it died down, Chris' gaze was a lot more friendly than it had been before.  
  
Jacob always knew how to defuse a situation.  
  
Finally, both he and his brother dug into their meals, him with all the speed and correctness he could muster, Jacob with just the speed of a teenage boy, which was, if James calculated correctly, around 3.3 cubic centimetres per second, depending on other factors like water content, taste, and whether the level of hunger was at "hungry" or "absolutely ravenous" (that is not to say he ever calculated incorrectly, more a general statement of vagueness since the numbers themselves were annoyingly vague, and his tries to calculate a standard deviation had met with failure so far; the sample size was just too small).  
  
"So, James", Dennis asked him.  
  
"Yes. James Vonnegut, and you're Dennis...?" He lifted an eyebrow.  
  
"Dennis D. Dynamite. The middle "D" stands for danger. My folks have a sense of humour, apparently." Dennis grinned at him, and James gave a slight smile back, surprising himself.  
  
"I have no other names, unfortunately", he told him, and for some reason, he chuckled.  
  
"That's great, then."  
  
The remainder of the day was spent in a satisfactory manner, partially at school and then working on the non-math homework at home. The math looked so trivially easy he could probably solve it in his sleep...


	4. Introduction: 1.4 - Riley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riley makes some friends, and you learn more about this world. Well... slightly more.

Going to school was awesome, Riley found.  
  
There were other kids!  
  
Kids she could attend classes with, and talk to, and try to make friends with!  
  
Riley had already decided she loved school before ever setting a foot into it.  
  
Her opinion did not change throughout the day.  
  
  
  
The first person her own age she actually talked to was someone she met in biology class - it wasn't very interesting, she'd always known all of that stuff, as far back as she could remember (all six months of it). They didn't even go into proper surgery procedure or cybernetics or anything like that.  
  
And she shouldn't mention that, because that might make people notice something was off about her, and she did not wish to be off.  
  
Said person's name was Dinah, and she didn't think biology class very interesting, either, although Riley suspected it was for slightly different reasons than her own.  
  
"56,3% chance I'll fall asleep during class", she muttered.  
  
"Hmm?", Riley commented.  
  
"Nothing. Uh… I haven't really seen you before…"  
  
Mrs Jameson wasn't really the type to tell students a new one had arrived.  
  
"I'm Riley. I'm new. And you?"  
  
"Dinah."  
  
"Ms Vonnegut, Ms Alcott, please pay attention!", a voice interrupted Riley's very first conversation with somebody her own age.  
  
"Yes, Mrs Jameson", they chorused, and Dinah threw Riley a grin.  
  
Riley grinned back.  
  
Afterwards, they got lunch together, Riley searching them a table where she found a boy sitting in his own corner, a blonde-haired girl sharing with him, but the two didn't seem to be talking.  
  
Promptly, Riley decided it would be a good idea to drag herself and Dinah there.  
  
"Hi!", she chirped. "I'm Riley, I'm new. And you are?"  
  
The boy stared at her, frozen, while the girl sighed. "Name's Biron. Missy Biron."  
  
Riley grinned at her. The other girl's forehead and palm met, in a meeting for the ages; it was love at first smack.  
  
"Nevermind. You want to sit here?" Riley nodded, still smiling. Smiling made people like you, she'd heard.  
  
Taking a seat, she then asked the boy: "And what's your name?"  
  
"Uh - Theo. Theo Anders."  
  
"It's nice to meet you, Theo, Missy", Dinah answered. "I'm Dinah Alcott."  
  
Everybody looked at Riley, and Riley smiled.  
  
What exactly was she supposed to do now?  
  
They still looked, and feeling shy all of a sudden, Riley raised her hand, and waved at them.  
  
They stared, until finally, finally, Dinah started giggling.  
  
It was Missy who recentered the group's conversation. "So - Riley, right?"  
  
Riley nodded.  
  
"You're new here, so - how did you end up at Edison?"  
  
Riley shrugged. "New guardian. Me 'n my brothers - Jacob and James - well, this one doesn't want to homeschool us, apparently. So I get to go to school!"  
  
Riley grinned at them, and it was Theo who spoke up, softly, near-silently: "So… you've never been to school before?"  
  
"Not that I can remember. Me 'n' my brothers, we got into an accident, around six months ago, and everything before that's kind of… plain not there." She shrugged. "Our new guardian's nice, though."  
  
"What are they like?", Missy asked.  
  
"Well - Ms Hebert's nice. Very kind. We've all got our own rooms, and each one of us was allowed to decorate them on their own. Mr King didn't let us have our own rooms."  
  
They exchanged a look. "Well - maybe he didn't have enough space?", Dinah asked.  
  
"There used to be four empty rooms in the house." Riley shrugged. "Ours was a bit crammed, I'd have liked to have my own."  
  
They stared. "A-alright", Theo said.  
  
"Who do you live with?", Riley asked. Apparently, that was appropriate smalltalk. It was nice to learn what that was supposed to be like.  
  
"Whom", Theo corrected, then blushed. "And… that's a preposition at the end, and I think you're not supposed to do that, and… shutting up now."  
  
Riley smiled at him, and he blushed some more.  
  
"I live with my parents", Dinah answered.  
  
"Mine are divorced, so… half-and-half, mostly." Missy shrugged.  
  
Everyone's eyes turned to Theo.  
  
"Uh… half orphan, so with my father, though I used to try to spend time with Kayden - my former step-mother - when I could, but..." The boy seemed to shrink in on himself, and Riley smiled some more at him.  
  
Maybe it might help?  
  
Apparently, it didn't, because he just froze, instead.  
  
What was she doing wrong?  
  
It was Dinah who saved their talk, and brought up a new TV series that had just started airing, one everybody but Riley had heard of and was eager to tell her about, which segued into a much more relaxed conversation.  
  
Finally, the four of them agreed to meet up after school - strangely enough, none of them really had any afterschool activities, being excused for one reason or another.  
  
In Riley's case, her guardian had been strangely anxious about her involvement, she didn't quite get why, the others all kept quiet about why they hadn't gotten signed up - except for Dinah, that is, who had begged her parents for not getting signed up this last semester after a catastrophic last one.  
  
Riley was reasonably sure there was some legislation surrounding after-school activities that had changed in recent years, mainly due to capes and a need to obscure who was in the Wards program, but she didn't quite know.  
  
It was always so very, very difficult to know.  
  
  
  
Meeting up was fun - all three actually came, which Riley hadn't really expected. It almost felt like having friends. She'd never had those before - well, not unless you counted those she'd made, occasionally, but Riley was reasonably sure that being involved in a friend's creation meant they were more your offspring than your friend, and anyways, none of them had ever been able to talk on their own, or have conversations with her.  
  
Brothers obviously did not count as friends, they were her older brothers.  
  
They'd found a small park, directly across the school, and the other three were already waiting for her, sitting at a small table, Missy and Theo beside each other, Dinah across from them.  
  
Dinah waved her over, and Riley came, slowly, deliberately, hardly believing they were still around, her face breaking out into a smile.  
  
"Hey Riley!"  
  
"Hi." Riley smiled, and stood there, awkwardly, not quite sure what to do right now.  
  
"Take a seat, we won't bite." Dinah laughed, and Riley quickly sat down, joining the conversation - about favourite Protectorate members and Wards.  
  
But as they sat there, all four of them just talking in the park, Theo smiling shyly, Dinah laughing, and Missy rolling her eyes, Riley felt warm, and fuzzy, and connected in a way she never really had before.


End file.
